The Lake Nebo Murder

After Emma Shaw returns to her small Black Mountain home to open a photography business, an old friend, and now the local mayor, asks Emma to investigate the death of the wife of a local businessman. When Emma hesitates, the Mayor threatens to have the bank foreclose on her father’s farm. Now, Emma must use her ancestral gift of aura reading to help solve the case before the bank forecloses and someone gets away with murder on Lake Nebo.

Ruben D. Gonzales was born and raised in East L.A. but has called North Carolina home since 1976. The Black Mountain Mystery series is developed out of his love for the heritage and mystery of the North Carolina mountains. After college, Ruben spent five years with the Peace Corps in various capacities and stations including two years as an elementary school teacher in a small African village without electricity or indoor plumbing. Ruben spent evenings reading and writing by candlelight and during this time he wrote a short story that was bought by the BBC for world broadcast. His first published book, The Cottage on the Bay, a historical novel, takes place on a fictional plantation outside of Wilmington, NC, and his second book, Murder on Black Mountain, the first in his series, takes place in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Since retiring from full-time work, Ruben spends his time writing and teaches part-time with the local community college.  You can learn more here.